Angkor Wat and Khmer Rouge
In 1970 the future of Angkor Wat was placed in great doubt with the infamous Khmer
Rouge taking control of Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge had set out with a plan to destroy
all of Cambodia’s past and with Angkor Wat being undoubtedly the most recognizable
‘document’ of Cambodia’s history, it was an obvious target for
the regime. However, the more important immediate target was the mass murder of
millions of their own people and so the Wat had to wait.
When the Khmer Rouge was ousted from power in 1979 troops from the army still occupied
the area around Angkor Wat and used the temples as a shield. Fully aware that international
opinion would reject any ideas of evicting them forcibly as doing so would undoubtedly
threaten the temples themselves. This did come with its own problems though. The
temples received no regular maintenance or repair which, given the tropical climate
in which weathering was greatly accelerated by the rain and rapid plant growth,
had the potential to cause great problems.
This also caused problems with UNESCO in offering it a place on the world heritage
list. During the troubles of the 1970’s and 80’s they were reluctant
to offer it a place as sights must be in a certain state of repair and provide guarantees
of continued maintenance to be placed on the list. However in 1992 UNESCO brushed
aside these rules to allow Angkor Wat to be inscribed due to fear of further damage
potentially being caused by waiting any longer.